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GLOBAL
INSTITUTE OF
MANAGEMENT
& TECHNOLOGY

TOPIC : PERT &

CPM

NAME - ARPITA BISWAS

YEAR – 4TH
YEAR SEM - 7TH SEM
DEPARTMENT – COMPUTER SCIENCE ENGINEERING
ROLL NO.– 25900120014
REG. NO.– 2590100110002 OF 2020-21
SUB – PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
SUB CODE –CHSMC701
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INDEX
SI TOPIC PAGE
NO. NO.
1. ABSTRACT 3

2. INTRODUCTION 3

3. WHAT IS PERT ? 3

4. WHAT IS CPM ? 3

5. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERT AND 4

CPM
6. THE CONCEPT OF PROJECT 4
MANAGEMENT
8. PERT AND CPM IN PROJECT 5
MANAGEMENT
9. PERT & CPM CHART EXAMPLE 6

10. ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES 7

OF PERT & CPM
11. APPLICATIONS OF PERT & CPM 7

12. SUMMARY & CONCLUSION 8

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13. REFFERENCE 8

ABSTRACT
With the advent of technology and increasing requirement of efficient delivery of projects, many
techniques have emerged. Different techniques are adopted by the project managers as per relevance
and effectiveness. CPM and PERT are most widely used effective tools in project management with
varied potential of delivering efficiency in pertinent fields and nature of projects. Seemingly, both
technique share many similarities but an in-depth analysis reveals some striking differences as well.
This study aims to underpin the salient features of both techniques and their comparison paired up
with pros and cons of each.

INTRODUCTION
Project management can be understood as a systematic way of planning, scheduling, executing,
monitoring, controlling the different aspects of the project, so as to attain the goal made at the time of
project formulation. PERT and CPM are the two network-based project management techniques,
which exhibit the flow and sequence of the activities and events. Program (Project) Management and
Review Technique (PERT) is appropriate for the projects where the time needed to complete different
activities are not known.
On the other hand, the Critical Path Method or CPM is apt for the projects which are recurring in
nature.
The two scheduling methods use a common approach for designing the network and for ascertaining
its critical path. They are used in the successful completion of a project and hence used in conjunction
with each other. Nevertheless, the truth is that CPM is different from PERT in a way that the latter
concentrates on time while the former stresses on the time-cost trade-off.

WHAT IS PERT ?
PERT is an acronym for Program (Project) Evaluation and Review Technique, in which planning,
scheduling, organizing, coordinating and controlling uncertain activities take place. The technique
studies and represents the tasks undertaken to complete a project, to identify the least time for
completing a task and the minimum time required to complete the whole project. It was developed in
the late 1950s. It is aimed to reduce the time and cost of the project.
PERT uses time as a variable which represents the planned resource application along with
performance specification. In this technique, first of all, the project is divided into activities and
events. After that proper sequence is ascertained, and a network is constructed. After that time needed
in each activity is calculated and the critical path (longest path connecting all the events) is
determined.

WHAT IS CPM ?
Developed in the late 1950s, Critical Path Method or CPM is an algorithm used for planning,
scheduling, coordination and control of activities in a project. Here, it is assumed that the activity
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duration is fixed and certain. CPM is used to compute the earliest and latest possible start time for
each activity.
The process differentiates the critical and non-critical activities to reduce the time and avoid the
queue generation in the process. The reason for the identification of critical activities is that, if any
activity is delayed, it will cause the whole process to suffer. That is why it is named as Critical Path
Method.
In this method, first of all, a list is prepared consisting of all the activities needed to complete a
project, followed by the computation of time required to complete each activity. After that, the
dependency between the activities is determined. Here, ‘path’ is defined as a sequence of activities in
a network. The critical path is the path with the highest length.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERT AND CPM

BASIS FOR PERT CPM
COMPARISON
Meaning PERT is a project management CPM is a statistical technique of project
technique, used to manage uncertain management that manages well defined
activities of a project. activities of a project.
What is it? A technique of planning and control A method to control cost and time.
of time.
Orientation Event-oriented Activity-oriented
Evolution Evolved as Research & Evolved as Construction project
Development project
Model Probabilistic Model Deterministic Model
Focuses on Time Time-cost trade-off
Estimates Three time estimates One time estimate
Appropriate for High precision time estimate Reasonable time estimate
Management of Unpredictable Activities Predictable activities
Nature of jobs Non-repetitive nature Repetitive nature
Critical and Non- No differentiation Differentiated
critical activities
Suitable for Research and Development Project Non-research projects like civil
construction, ship building etc.
Crashing concept Not Applicable Applicable

THE CONCEPT OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project management is the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of resources in each
activity of the project in order to optimize the duration of the project activities, thereby minimizing
the total project costs and time. Every project involves men, materials, money, machines, which are
controllable factors; and the time of project completion is the uncontrollable factor in project
analysis. In implementing or executing projects, resources are committed which are limited in supply.
It is the duty of the project manager to harness these resources into project sub-activities and manage
the project cycles in order to achieve the project results effectively and efficiently and in a timely
fashion. Project management entails a variety of activities, such as initiating, planning, implementing,
controlling, and closing projects for businesses and individuals. It guides individuals and
organizations by giving disciplines, principles, techniques and methods to finish or complete things
on time and within the confines of planned budgets.

The thrust of project management is effectiveness, time savings, and efficiency. To accomplish this,
project managers must hire and deploy a team of highly productive workers who are committed to
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achieving the project’s objectives. This team helps management to successfully complete the projects
without committing more funds or investing more time in the project. Therefore, project management
involves proper execution of project circles through management of skilled people at work. Further,
project management helps project teams to work at a specific time, scope and cost to complete a
project within the confines of budgets and specifications. In the present knowledge-based economy,
project management activities are factors that add exceptional value to products and services and to
everyday routine workplace activities.

PERT AND CPM IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Effective project management demands optimization of the duration of the project to minimize the
total project time and cost. The Project Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) and the Critical Path
Method (CPM) are always employed by project managers by breaking large complex projects into
sub-activities, deploying resources and managing the circles of the projects in order to minimize the
total cost and time of the project. Hence, PERT and CPM are operational research tools used in
driving project effectiveness and efficiency and these techniques can be applied to several industries
or sectors, such as construction, aviation, the military, and education, including the civil government.
In managing projects, managers rely on PERT/CPM to provide answers to the following project-
associated pertinent issues: What is the total time to complete the project? What are the scheduled
start and end dates for each specific sub-activity? Which sub-activities or activities are critical and
must be completed exactly as scheduled to keep the project as planned? How long can non-critical
sub-activities be delayed before they cause an extension to the finishing time of the project? If the
activity time is unknown, what is the probability that the project will be executed to completion at any
given time? If there is a cost associated with “crashing” each activity, what is the additional cost of
completing the project at an earlier time than the normal time ?
PERT and CPM assist management in identifying the longest time-consuming, or consuming path
through a network of tasks or activities as a basis for planning, executing, and controlling a project.
The techniques help managers to optimize the longest time duration in order to minimize the total
project cost and time. These tools help the project manager by guiding him/her through many stages
of project management. The techniques are mathematically simplified and give critical path and slack
time, provide project documentation and are very useful in monitoring project costs. However, in
comparing both techniques’ advantages to project management, PERT is event-oriented, probabilistic,
and concerned with time only and applies to projects in which the time horizon is unknown. In
contrast, CPM is activity-oriented and is a deterministic model and is used for projects that are
repetitive in nature and are small in size.
The PERT and CPM models facilitate the basic functions of planning, scheduling, and control. The
planning phase separates an entire project into defined requirements for materials, manpower, and
equipment. It is concerned with arranging well-defined tasks into a time sequence of performance.
PERT and CPM provide management with a clear definition of time cost, an operational network that
relates all activities to a time dimension, resource requirements and a method for showing critical and
non-critical activities. The application of these network models includes such diverse areas as the
development and distribution of new products, shipbuilding, turnaround maintenance of a plant and
where the timing activities require planning and scheduling of project activities.
In project management, an activity is a task that must be performed by an assigned project team. An
event is a milestone marking the completion of one or more activities. Before an activity can begin,
all of its predecessor activities must be completed. Project network models are an abstraction or
representation of activities and milestones of projects by arc/arrows and nodes respectively. The
PERT/CPM diagrams are illustrated below to show how projects are broken down into various sub-
activities, and how the duration of the project is optimized in order to minimize the total time and cost
of the project.
AOA and AON Conventions
There are two approaches in showing the activity precedence relationship in a project. These are:
 Page |6

AOA—Activity on Arc (AOA) This uses arrows (or arcs) to represent activities and nodes (circles) to
represent events.

AOA shows the activity duration on the arc.

Event is the point in time that indicates that an activity has been completed and other activities may
begin showing the precedence relationship.
AON—Activity on Node (AON) This uses circles to represent project activities and arrows to show
the required sequence of precedence relationship.

AON networks are slightly easier to construct since they avoid the need for certain connecting
(dummy) activities.
Below shows a network diagram, the work activities in precedence relationships indicated by arrows
linking the circles.

Activity A must be completed before Activity B can begin and after Activity B is completed, Activity
C can begin.

Activity A and B can occur concurrently, but both must be completed before Activity C can begin.

Effective project management

demands optimization of the duration
of the
project to minimize the total project
time and cost. The Project
Evaluation Re-
view Technique (PERT) and the
Critical Path Method (CPM) are
always em-
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ployed by project managers by

breaking large complex projects into
sub-activities,
deploying resources and managing
the circles of the projects in order to
minim-
ize the total cost and time of the
project [2] [3]. Hence, PERT and
CPM are op-
erational research tools used in
driving project effectiveness and
efficiency and
these techniques can be applied to
several industries or sectors, such as
construc-
tion, aviation, the military, and
education, including the civil
government [9].
 Page |8

In managing projects, managers rely

on PERT/CPM to provide answers to
the
following project-associated
pertinent issues: What is the total
time to complete
the project? What are the scheduled
start and end dates for each specific
sub-
activity? Which sub-activities or
activities are critical and must be
completed
exactly as scheduled to keep the
project as planned? How long can
non-critical
sub-activities be delayed before they
cause an extension to the finishing
time of
 Page |9

the project? If the activity time is

unknown, what is the probability that
the
project will be executed to
completion at any given time? If
there is a cost asso-
ciated with “crashing” each activity,
what is the additional cost of
completing the
project at an earlier time than the
normal time [4]?
PERT and CPM assist management
in identifying the longest time-
consuming,
or consuming path through a network
of tasks or activities as a basis for
plan-
ning, executing, and controlling a
project. The techniques help
managers to op-
 P a g e | 10

timize the longest time duration in

order to minimize the total project
cost and
time. These tools help the project
manager by guiding him/her through
many
stages of project management. The
techniques are mathematically
simplified and
PERT & CPM CHART EXAMPLE

PERT CHART :
 P a g e | 11

CPM CHART :

ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF PERT :

PERT is concerned with giving attention to the events that are critical for timely completion of
project and it helps in integrating the information obtained through various departments. It
considers three possibilities of events happening and subsequently enables to cope with the
situation as per requirements. On the other hand, PERT is more concerned with time factor and
gives secondary importance to costs and budgets. The analysis done through PERT is subjective
and data may become unreliable if the circumstances change .

ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF CPM:

CPM helps in systematizing the large scale projects and further guides to implement, execute and
manage the project. It helps in calculating the slack of every activity and also gives an option to
speed up the project and finish it in shorter duration. Also, CPM allows incorporating more
resources and their better utilization. Once the critical activities are determined, CPM enables to
control all risk factors. On the other side, CPM has many shortcomings such as large scale projects
are segregated into thousand of activities thus requiring efficient software to cope with the
situation. In such case, if one activity at critical path is delayed, whole CPM needs revision.
Moreover, in order to manage the resources during a project, the guidelines provided in CPM are
nit sufficing so a manger has to use another separate tool to efficiently manage the resources.

K. B. Bagshaw

DOI:
 P a g e | 12

10.4236/ajor.2021.114013 218
American Journal of Operations Research

give critical path and slack time,

provide project documentation and
are very
useful in monitoring project costs
[7]. However, in comparing both
techniques’
advantages to project management,
PERT is event-oriented,
probabilistic, and
concerned with time only and
applies to projects in which the time
horizon is
unknown. In contrast, CPM is
activity-oriented and is a
deterministic model and
is used for projects that are repetitive
in nature and are small in size [4] [9].
 P a g e | 13

The PERT and CPM models

facilitate the basic functions of
planning, sche-
duling, and control. The planning
phase separates an entire project into
defined
requirements for materials,
manpower, and equipment. It is
concerned with ar-
ranging well-defined tasks into a
time sequence of performance. PERT
and CPM
provide management with a clear
definition of time cost, an operational
network
that relates all activities to a time
dimension, resource requirements
and a me-
 P a g e | 14

thod for showing critical and non-

critical activities [9]. The application
of these
network models includes such
diverse areas as the development and
distribution
of new products, shipbuilding,
turnaround maintenance of a plant
and where
the timing activities require planning
and scheduling of project activities.
In project management, an activity is
a task that must be performed by an
as-
signed project team. An event is a
milestone marking the completion of
one or
more activities. Before an activity
can begin, all of its predecessor
activities must
 P a g e | 15

be completed. Project network

models are an abstraction or
representation of
activities and milestones of projects
by arc/arrows and nodes respectively.
The
PERT/CPM diagrams are illustrated
below to show how projects are
broken
down into various sub-activities, and
how the duration of the project is
opti-
mized in order to minimize the total
time and cost of the project [4].
AOA and AON Conventions
There are two approaches in showing
the activity precedence relationship
in a
project. These are:
 P a g e | 16

AOA—Activity on Arc (AOA)

This uses arrows (or arcs) to
represent activi-
ties and nodes (circles) to represent
events.

AOA shows the activity duration on

the arc.
Event is the point in time that
indicates that an activity has been
completed
and other activities may begin
showing the precedence relationship.
AON—Activity on Node (AON)
This uses circles to represent project
activi-
ties and arrows to show the required
sequence of precedence relationship.
 P a g e | 17

AON networks are slightly easier to

construct since they avoid the need
for
certain connecting (dummy)
activities
APPLICATIONS OF CPM /PERT :
These methods have been applied to a wide variety of problems in industries and have found
acceptance even in government organizations. These include :
 Construction of a dam or a canal system in a region
 Construction of a building or highway
 Maintenance or overhaul of airplanes or oil refinery
 Space flight
 Cost control of a project using PERT / COST
 Designing a prototype of a machine
 Development of supersonic planes

SUMMARY & CONCLUSION

The difference between PERT and CPM is reduced to a lesser degree. Nowadays, PERT and
CPM are used in a complimentary way.

Product managers cannot essentially possess a degree in product development. It comes from
their experience, background, and various other factors that help them craft new product
launch ideas. Continuous interactions with consumers and staying updated after the market
requirements are some key aspects considered while developing new business product ideas.
These factors will reduce the chances of product failure and increase the chunk of the
company’s profits.

K. B. Bagshaw

DOI:
 P a g e | 18

10.4236/ajor.2021.114013 219
American Journal of Operations Research

Below shows a network diagram, the

work activities in precedence
relation-
ships indicated by arrows linking the
circles.

Activity A must be completed before

Activity B can begin and after
Activity B
is completed, Activity C can begin.

Activity A and B can occur

concurrently, but both must be
completed before
Activity C can begin.
REFFERENCE
 https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-pert-and-cpm.html#Conclusion
 chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.srividyaengg.ac.in/
coursematerial/CSE/104745.pdf
 P a g e | 19

 https://ca.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/pert-vs-cpm
 https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-pert-and-cpm.html
 https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/project-management/pert-and-cpm-techniques-of-project-
management-advantages-and-disadvantages/25769
 https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-pert-and-cpm/
 https://byjus.com/commerce/difference-between-pert-and-cpm/
 https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/pert-and-cpm
 https://u-next.com/blogs/product-management/pert-and-cpm/
 chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.ijstr.org/final-print/
aug2015/Project-Planning-And-Scheduling-Using-Pert-And-Cpm-Techniques-With-Linear-
Programming-Case-Study.pdf
 https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/project-management-tutorial/pert-chart#GoTop
 https://www.workamajig.com/blog/critical-path-method